Saturday, September 27, 2014

Fresh for your reading pleasure! Our weekly roundup of fav links to other blogs, web sites, articles, & images, all gathered from around the Twitterverse.
• Feline hideaway: Frank Lloyd Wright's amazing house for a stylish cat.
• Holy horseshoes.
• Image: When it comes to a good old medieval joust, my money is on the dog riding a rabbit.
• The fifteen most bizarre sex tips from the Victorian era.
• Amelia Simmons, America's earliest cookbook author.
• The wonderfully ornate & extravagant gloves of 1625-35.
• Animals in warfare from Hannibal to World War One.
• Industrial espionage and cutthroat competition fueled the rise of the humble harmonica.
• Image: Seventeenth century comic? First he's a soldier, then a burgomaster, then someone falls down in a shocking display.
• Truly incredible paintings: the British artists who were witnesses to World War Two.
• The lost Grand Union Hotel in NYC; in 1905 a 22-year-old hotel phone operator wed a 70-year-old guest who dies four months later, leaving her $15 million richer.
• Fancy pants: skirmishes with the fashion police in 16th c. Italy.
• You've been warned about "bicycle face" - now there's the horror of "motor-car face."
• Image: Cats on a Ridge of a Roof at Full Moon by Fedor Flinzer.
• Dining at the stylish 1901 Cafe Martin on Fifth Avenue, NY.
• Arsenic, cyanide, & strychnine: the golden age of Victorian poisoners.
• "The Algonquin Legends of New England," 1884.
• In praise of the humble knot.
• Collection of digitised Victorian and Edwardian medicine trade cards now online.
• Venetian glass trade beads and the global Renaissance.
• Image: You've got mail! US Mail trolley in Harvard Square, Cambridge, c1900.
• The Scotch Giantess, the Spanish Giant, a jealous husband, and a quantity of arsenic, 1831.
• A lady's maid and her duties in the Georgian and Regency Eras.
• Following Outlander on tv? Interesting blog by the costume designer about Claire's 18th c. wedding gown - perhaps more accurate than you might think.
• Image: Official substitute for ice cream during World War Two: carrot on a stick.
• Small stories: illuminating dollhouses at the V&A.
• Why was Robert Webster, a slave, wearing what looks like a Confederate uniform in this photograph?
• Seventeenth century remedies: how to banish bugs and avoid feeling "louzy."
• General Washington and the body-snatchers.
• What the 17th c. can teach us about vaginas. (Really)
• Image: A bookstore romance, by Harrison Fisher, 1902
• Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938): trapeze performer, model, artist, lover, and mother of an artist.
• How to attract a husband and be a good wife, 1960s style. Hint: how you eat cheese reveals a lot.
• Feeling peakish? Recipes for 16th-17th c. possets.
• Just for fun: a six-year-old's review of a favorite book (based on misunderstanding of the availabilty of multiple copies.)Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.